Chemistry 500 Seminar

The chemistry 500 seminar must be presented prior to taking the oral comprehensive exam and during the first two years in residence.  This seminar is to be given in one of the area seminar series on a topic not closely tied to research being performed within the Chemistry or other Penn State departments.  The topic must be approved by the entire committee.  Written reports are due to the graders one week prior to the seminar date.  Note that each area has the same guidelines for the seminars.  You will receive the guidelines from Amanda Ault prior to the beginning of the semester.  The overall grade achieved on the combination of the oral seminar and written report will be officially recorded as the grade for 1 credit of CHEM 500.  A grade of 3.0 or better is required before a student can schedule his or her oral comprehensive exam.  Students failing to obtain the minimum grade must repeat the entire seminar requirement until the minimum grade is achieved (up to a maximum of three times).

Additional guidelines are:

1. The evaluating committee should be composed of a minimum of three faculty members, preferably from the doctoral committee.  The advisor should not participate in the committee.  In addition to faculty members, senior graduate students and post-doctoral fellows can also be asked to participate in the committee to provide constructive comments on the written and oral presentation.
2. The report should be written in the style of a 3 to 4-page JACS article (this translates into ~12–16 double-spaced pages, including figures and tables).
3. The oral presentation should last 30 minutes with questions (25+5) to mimic a likely conference format.
4. The presentation and report must contain an element of critical analysis (rather than be limited to factual reproduction).  Specifically, the student should identify one essential unanswered question on the topic and propose how to address it experimentally or computationally.
5. The seminar should be based on a minimum of three essential references that appeared in the last 2 to 3 years (in major journals for the field); if this cannot be satisfied, approval should be obtained from the chair.
6. The main references above cannot be review articles.

A copy of the grading sheet, seminar committee form, and guidelines are available on-line also.

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